How a Simple Supply Chain System Transformed Last-Minute Procurement in a Nigerian Church

While reminiscing and laughing about past events during my visit to my friend, Pastor Emeka's office, the sound engineer suddenly burst in, requesting the urgent purchase of batteries, speaker cables, and jack plugs for their guitars.

Frustrated by the request, Pastor Emeka responded, "Why are you asking for these items now? You know the fellowship is this evening, don’t you? Well, I suppose we’ll manage with what we have today and procure them tomorrow since we don’t have any money now." "I’m really sorry, Sir, but we don’t have anything to work with this evening. I understand we may not have funds, but I can speak to the supplier to deliver them on credit, and we can pay him tomorrow or in two days," came the response from the man he called Philip.

Reminiscing in Pastor Emeka’s Office

I noticed that Pastor Emeka was no longer in the mood for our chat. He was upset, continually mentioning how the team often made these requests at the last minute. He didn’t want to be blamed for any issues during their church services, so he usually obliged them, leading to exorbitant bills since they often had to order from suppliers who were willing to extend credit.

Well, the supply chain professional in me smiled because I had a few simple solutions. I started by asking him how many microphones they had and how many batteries each microphone used per service. I also inquired about the number of speakers they used and the distance between them during setup, along with a few other questions.

The Urgent Request for Supplies

Within an hour of our discussion, I had developed a small system that he could use to manage procurement in his church. Additionally, I advised him to purchase two packs of batteries and ten rolls of speaker cables with Speakons and to implement a policy requiring all church supply requests to be submitted at least two weeks before they are needed.

Since he always thought of me as a printer, he was surprised at how I could design a logistics system for his team within an hour.

With my head swelling with pride (ask a Nigerian what that means), I simply replied that supply chain management is inherent in everything we do in life. We just need to design it differently, and if we take it seriously, we can solve a lot of systemic problems.

Last week, he told me the sound engineer had missed church for two Sundays, and word has it that he is not pleased with the small system we set up to reduce emergency orders in the church—a practice that is hazardous to any system.

You, dear reader, what kind of system do you have in place for managing orders?

Stay Blessed.